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This was last week’s Christmas Eve puzzle so not surprisingly another seasonal theme but not cloyingly so: some toboggans, crackers, a carol, a miracle, a portent and bit too much drinking. WHITE CHRISTMAS (11A) is clued quite well. A couple of new words (LOLLOP and DIABOLO)…

Across

1

TOBOGGANS – (bags on got)*

6

VIR[a]GO – VIRGO’s a sign of the Zodiac and a virago is a shrew (not sure what the male equivalent is… any female readers here to let us know?)

9

POR(TEN)T

10

M(I+R)ACLE – Xmas-themed (“camel”, “king”, “amazing event” which is presumably the nativity). I do wonder about using “flea-bitten” as an anagrind.

11

WHITE CH(eck)+(is smart)* – WHITE is a “chess player” and WHITE CHRISTMAS is a “standard” tune indeed. Personally I like the irony of it being written by Irving Berlin in WWII. The wordplay is surprising and misleads quite nicely.

13

LOLL+OP – New word for me: LOLLOP means to “lounge”. According to Encarta, a Britishism to boot. Even though the clue “Hang work in lounge” reads as an insertion, it’s just a charade.

14

CRACKERS – Xmas-themed: partial double definition and cryptic definition: the kind of clue that depends on knowing (or working out – probably not very hard) the theme (or what day it was published) since it refers explicitly to “tomorrow” (Xmas day).

23

UNA+WAR+E – And our girl-friend UNA makes another guest appearance.

24

DIABOLO – Cryptic definition of a game with a top-like wooden thingy. Didn’t know this and had to wikitrawl. Hard clue to crack: no wordplay, so I struggled, even given D?A?O?O.

25

KE(R.R.)Y – Non-protestant Bishops are Right Reverends. Irish counties are shorter and pithier than their English cousins.

Down

1

TOPE – Hidden in “LighT OPEra”. I suppose Xmas-related assuming one does more than one’s fair share over the holidays.

2

BARTHOLOMEW F+AIR – Along with “Volpone” and “The Alchemist” a “play” by Ben Jonson — somehow I knew this. Also Bart was one of Jesus’s twelve.

3

GREAT+COAT – For some reason I always associate GREATCOATs with The Great War.

5

SOMBRE+R+O – Pretty sure I’ve seen a similarly themed clue in the past, but I think the surface works quite well here due to the surprising parsing: “dark” is SOMBRE and piece of ribbon” is R and “round” reads as around (containment) but it isn’t.

6

V+IR+US – Last clue for me: V[ide] for “see” escaped me for some time.

8

OPEN SESAME – Nice way to charade each word (“tournament” and kind of “seeds”.).

G+OLD – Xmas-theme: one of the gifts from the 3 wise men (along with frankincense and myrrh).

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Everyman.
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